Jo – Hey, that’s cool. I hear that kids are a very tough audience.

Just kidding. I’d really rather hear Turkey in the Straw. ;)

Very nice – I was surprised by the long hair too.

I didn’t dress up for this at all. I figured that since I don’t really have any photos of myself here, aside from the one in the self-portrait series, regular readers might appreciate seeing what I usually look like, blogs being such a visual and personality-focused medium. (Maybe I’m getting more conformist in my old age, too?)

Natalie – I set up a tripod and filmed it with the video setting on my digital camera. The memory card only has room for a three-minute video, so I had to take the camera down and upload the first bit to my computer before filming some more. Hence the sudden shift in the middle: although the tripod didn’t move, I wasn’t able to keep the exact same angle.

Laura – The last tune I played was “Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine.” I’m not sure of the one before that. Some old hornpipe or another.

I think birdsongs are easy to tune out because they are essentially atonal. For the same reason, I also find them much more engrossing, with a few exceptions: tufted titmice and towhees both have annoying songs, I think.

Lucy – Yes, I should have added that on the relatively rare occasions when I do listen to music now, the effect is much more overwhelming.

I’m glad to hear you’ll be following the smorgasblog. Now that the posting process is more automatic, the only real “work” involved is keeping up with the feeds in my reader.

Lene – Thanks for visiting. You’re right: live music is definitely something special. I should make more time and effort to take it in.

Nancy – Thanks. Glad to hear that the Morning Porch hasn’t gotten too repetitive for you yet!

Hi Rosie – Good to hear from a singer. Your relationship to recorded music sounds very healthy and creative. It may not be entirely dissimilar to the way I interact with other people’s poetry, reading it as if I were just discovering it in my own unconscious, allowing it to echo down deep.

CGP and Johemmant – I hear you about the phases, and I guess my own practice fluctuates as well. But these days, I really only immerse myself in music when I’m drinking, which isn’t often. (I keep thinking I should try to be a better alcoholic, but the rewards of sobrietry are too many, and besides, I value my sleep.)

CGP – Yeah, I guess a lot of employers disable Flash so that people won’t be tempted to watch videos all day. Unfortuately, it also means you won’t see the flash audio players at qarrtsiluni, for example.

Your discussion about the relationship between poetry and music is interesting. I find in the presence of live music, I often write–there’s something contagious about the process of creation as well as the process of learning to listen.